We Are Family

Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society looked into the genealogy of the three main Presidential candidates and found some rather interesting family connections.

Barack Obama is related to six American presidents through his mother's side: George Bush Sr and Jr,, Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, and James Madison. He is also related to Dick Cheney, Winston Churchill, General Robert E. Lee, and Brad Pitt.

Hillary Clinton is related to Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Celine Dion, Alanis Morrissette, author Jack Kerouac, and the wife of Prince Charles, Camilla Parker-Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall.

McCain's ancestry was somewhat harder to trace because the records available for his family were not as complete as for the other two. Researchers were able to find that he is a distant cousin of First Lady Laura Bush, however.

Obama and President Bush are 10th cousins, once removed, linked by Samuel Hinkley of Cape Cod, who died in 1662.

Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, linked by Edwin Hickman, who died in Virginia in 1769. Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, declined to comment on the senator's ancestry.

Clinton and Jolie are ninth cousins, twice removed, both related to Jean Cusson who died in St. Sulpice, Quebec, in 1718.

It makes me wonder who I am related to. Casanova, perhaps?